Post by Lissa on Oct 6, 2003 13:53:28 GMT -5
Anyone else see this yet?
We saw it on Saturday night, because a.) hubby really likes Jack Black, b.) rumor had it it was really good (heck- EW actually gave it an A!) and c.) neither of us were in the mood to see Seabiscuit. I would say I was pleasently surprised, but see reason letter b, and I guess I can't say that.
Amazingly enough, the kids were not nauseating. They should have been. I mean, they were insanely talented, there was the usual kids-form-bond-with-teacher type garbage, and yet, the kids were actually not cute and not nauseating- they just worked. I think part of it was that Jack Black's character was never meant to hate kids or teaching- he just hated work. And they didn't try to make the kids impossibly mature or anything (except for one, who had enough other flaws and was more believable). But that was impressive to me.
The other thing that really struck me about this movie and about Jack Black was his humor. Put this movie in the hands of Adam Sandler and there would be more bathroom and fart jokes than you can shake a stick at (which is just a very odd phrase). And I'm not a HUGE Jack Black fan. In fact, at times in this I found him over the top and cringeworthy. But there were no bathroom jokes and little sexual humor that I can remember. I'm not saying that bathroom and sex humor is pure evil- I laugh at Kevin Smith movies myself (even Clerks, which I hate for philosophical reasons)- but it's really nice to see that in this sort of movie that's more geared towards kids. Heck, it's nice to see that in movies geared towards adults!
And ready for this? There was ::gasp::... wait for it... NO ROMATIC SUBPLOT! Woah. That amazed me. In a good way. There was no need for a romantic subplot.
I wouldn't say it's the best movie I've ever seen, or the best movie I've seen all year. But while I don't regret using coupons, I wouldn't have regretted paying full price for it, either. Definitely worth seeing- especially as we come into dead-serious-chick flick-dying-sister-cry-your-eyes-out-Oscar contenders season.
Lissa
We saw it on Saturday night, because a.) hubby really likes Jack Black, b.) rumor had it it was really good (heck- EW actually gave it an A!) and c.) neither of us were in the mood to see Seabiscuit. I would say I was pleasently surprised, but see reason letter b, and I guess I can't say that.
Amazingly enough, the kids were not nauseating. They should have been. I mean, they were insanely talented, there was the usual kids-form-bond-with-teacher type garbage, and yet, the kids were actually not cute and not nauseating- they just worked. I think part of it was that Jack Black's character was never meant to hate kids or teaching- he just hated work. And they didn't try to make the kids impossibly mature or anything (except for one, who had enough other flaws and was more believable). But that was impressive to me.
The other thing that really struck me about this movie and about Jack Black was his humor. Put this movie in the hands of Adam Sandler and there would be more bathroom and fart jokes than you can shake a stick at (which is just a very odd phrase). And I'm not a HUGE Jack Black fan. In fact, at times in this I found him over the top and cringeworthy. But there were no bathroom jokes and little sexual humor that I can remember. I'm not saying that bathroom and sex humor is pure evil- I laugh at Kevin Smith movies myself (even Clerks, which I hate for philosophical reasons)- but it's really nice to see that in this sort of movie that's more geared towards kids. Heck, it's nice to see that in movies geared towards adults!
And ready for this? There was ::gasp::... wait for it... NO ROMATIC SUBPLOT! Woah. That amazed me. In a good way. There was no need for a romantic subplot.
I wouldn't say it's the best movie I've ever seen, or the best movie I've seen all year. But while I don't regret using coupons, I wouldn't have regretted paying full price for it, either. Definitely worth seeing- especially as we come into dead-serious-chick flick-dying-sister-cry-your-eyes-out-Oscar contenders season.
Lissa
